


A Closer Look

by strawberriez8800 (orphan_account)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, College, Drama, F/M, Romance, University
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-19 06:47:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22106770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/strawberriez8800
Summary: Sam Rostrevor is an engineering student in her final year at university. The pressure is on to ace her last year and land a graduate job. Sam meets her match in an antithesis when she is forced to work with Blake for their final project, where ‘getting a job’ and ‘studying’ are the last things on his mind.Blake Hunter can’t care less about obtaining his Bachelor degree, but he has somehow made it to the final year. Things take a turn for the worse when Penny, his beloved old puppy, becomes terminally ill and his parents use her life as a bargaining chip. His only solace is the thought that all things, good or bad, come to an end.Two different walks of life meet at a cross section -- their personal struggles put them to the test, and maybe, they might just find refuge in each other.





	1. First Impressions

A weight was lifted off Sam Rostrevor’s shoulders the moment she clicked ‘Submit’ on Quinn Engineering Co.’s website. It was her twentieth application for graduate jobs, with many more to come.

It went like this every time: after much procrastination and two cups of coffee, she would dive into an application, spend hours perfecting it like her future depended on it _because it did_ , then finally submit it. Rinse and repeat. This was her life now - the life of a final year engineering student who was terrified of not finding employment upon graduation.

The sun peeked through the curtains on her window. _7:30am._ God, she had been up for three hours. She grabbed her phone and texted ‘Good morning’ with a heart emoji to Tom Murray, the long-distance boyfriend who is on the other side of the country, studying marine biology in a Queensland coastal town.

Sam opened up Excel on her laptop to mark this application as ‘Completed’ on her growing spreadsheet of engineering graduate jobs, local and interstate. One day, she would get a job with one of these companies and finally, _finally_ start her career as a mechanical engineer.

* * *

It was tough getting back in the swing of attending lectures in a new semester, but it was Sam’s final year and she was going to make it count. This year was going to be different from the rest; for one, Haley was not going to be around now, she had been all too happy to put engineering behind her as she now started her first year as a nursing student.

Sam admired Haley’s courage for dropping her program after four years, with just one to go. She could never do such a thing herself, although sometimes she dreamed about it. All in vain, of course -- being an engineer was something Sam had envisioned for herself since primary school. She was not about to quit just because her best friend decided something else was better for her.

She sipped on her third cup of coffee as Dr. Simmons’ voice filled the auditorium, relying on the caffeine pulsing through her system to get through the morning.

Simmons did not waste any time in banter and jumped right in, just the way Sam preferred it. He brought up their final year project, to which Sam smiled in satisfaction, as she had already outlined her project plans and scheduled her semester to complete submissions on time. All seemed to go on as normal until…

“...some changes have been made to the curriculum. You may have seen this in an email I sent last week, but you’ll all be put into groups of two or three for this project,” Simmons paused for a second as the students groaned quietly in protest. Clearly, no one had bothered to check their university emails during the break, Sam included. She blamed it on job applications. “You’ll receive an email after this lecture with information about your group members for the year. I suggest that you all arrange to meet up as soon as possible to discuss the project plan.”

It was as though Sam was in a terrible dream, similar to those where she realised she had forgotten to study for an entire subject the day before its exam -- “Fuck,” she said under her breath.

The many hours she had spent in planning over the summer were flushed down the toilet just like that. To be punished for thinking ahead...

The bright side was, things could only look up from here. Or, at least, Sam very much hoped so.

* * *

Tom replied to Sam’s morning text just after lunch, although she could see that he had been up for hours on his Instagram story. She rolled her eyes. Tom had been slacking when it came to communication lately. She would worry about that later. There were more pressing issues at hand --

“There it is,” Sam said as she opened the latest email from Dr. Simmons, adjusting her laptop screen to make out the words as the sunlight reflected off the glass. University hipster cafes and their love for outdoor seating. 

Haley Johnson scooted her chair closer, pushed her sunglasses up and read out the names that were grouped with Sam’s. “Jessica Fitzgerald, oh I’ve seen her around. She seems nice,” Haley said, and Sam agreed. Sam worked with Jess in one of their assignments in first year; there was no drama at all. Haley squinted at Sam’s laptop. “Who the hell is Blake Hunter?”

The answer for that Sam did not have, yet. She pulled out her phone. “Blake...Hunter,” she said slowly, typing the name into Instagram search. For some reason, she didn’t expect anything to come up, but of course it did. It always did. “I think that’s him,” she said, showing her phone to Haley.

“Oh,” Haley said with raised eyebrows, “Aww, look at that dog.” There was only one photo on the account, and it was one of a small chubby beagle splayed out in the sun on a carpet of grass. 

Sam smiled at that photo. A very cute canine. She studied his profile picture more closely. The photo featured a boy their age, with mountains in the background. It was hard to see his face properly given how small the photo was. He had dark shoulder-length hair, and was wearing a T-shirt with some minimalist logo on it. Kind of boring. 

Then again, not everyone puts their entire lives and identity on social media for the world to gawk at. Sam appreciated this, in a way. There had been a few times she found herself obsessing over Likes and Follower counts before she caught herself on it.

“It’s weird that we haven’t noticed him around,” Sam said. The first year of her program were filled to the brim with students, but there was a significant drop-off in numbers when second year started. With each passing year, more and more students left the rigorous program and the ones that did stick around, well, stuck out. Most people knew each other, or at least knew _of_ each other by the final year.

“He’s probably a loner, or just hangs out with friends from high school,” Haley said. “Or he never goes to class.”

Sam dismissed the latter notion with a laugh. “Yeah, right. Imagine getting to final year without going to class.”

Haley shrugged. “I’m sure some people do.”

“Well, they better not be in my group,” Sam said, packing up her laptop. “I’m not about to work with some slack-off because he thinks he is ‘smart enough’ to do well without trying.”

Haley took a sip of her water and gave Sam a look of sympathy. “I’m so glad I dropped engineering.”

* * *

Sam leaned back in her chair and scanned over email draft one last time, trying to pick out any wording that might read as demanding or authoritarian. This was going to be her new group’s first impression of her -- it was a delicate exercise in being polite, yet assertive.

It was less than an hour after Sam had sent the email when Jessica replied, agreeing to Sam’s suggested date and time of meeting. At least one out of two group members seemed agreeable, to Sam’s relief. This Blake, however, did not reply even after 24 hours. Sam sent a follow-up email detailing _‘per my last email’_ and only then did he grace her with his one-worded response of ‘Yes.’

Sam sighed. It was going to be a long year.

* * *

It was a pleasant surprise for Sam to discover that she was not the first to arrive at their meeting. Sam knocked on the glass door of the booked student study room. Jessica appeared startled at the interruption from whatever she was reading on her laptop, and waved sheepishly.

They exchanged greetings and small talk as Sam got settled in. Jess had spent summer break at an internship at a local consulting firm, finished a week early and went on a road trip to Sydney. Sam was a bit ashamed to admit that the details went in one ear and out the other. When the conversation came to a lull, she couldn’t help but ask: “So, do you know who this Blake guy is?”

Jess shrugged. “Yeah, a little. We have a mutual friend...acquaintance? Anyway, I haven’t really talked to him. He seems pretty quiet.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t remember seeing him around to be honest.”

Similar to Haley’s guess, Jess mentioned that Blake likely did not attend classes regularly. In any case, the time for speculation came to a quick close because there was a quick knock at the door and a boy came in.

“Hey, sorry I’m a bit late.”

Dark hair, a little scruffy, with a plain shirt and jeans. Honestly, it wasn’t much of a deviation from his Instagram profile picture, except now Sam could actually see his face: deep brown eyes, light skin with freckles across his nose and cheeks, slightly chapped lips -- ordinary at first glance, but upon closer inspection...

Sam interrupted that thought. There were more important things right now. “Yeah, right, don’t worry we’ve barely started,” she opened up the project plan on her laptop that was connected to the presentation screen. “Let’s see…”

  
  



	2. The Start of Something Different

Two weeks had passed without too much of a hitch. There was one minor incident where Blake and Sam disagreed on their research topic, but they resolved their differences after Jess suggested a compromise. Sam had mostly forgotten it, though she did notice that Blake's comments and demeanor were a little dismissive during their argument. She frowned at the memory of that confrontation. 

Regardless, it was unproductive to linger over it as their first submission, the proposal, was due in a few days. Sam had managed to get the majority of the group’s work together with enough time for editing. But, of course, the remaining missing part was assigned to Blake and that was nowhere to be seen, despite his vague promise of ‘I’ll upload my part tonight’.

It was almost midnight when Sam gave up on waiting for Blake to send his work. She shut down her laptop and dialed for Tom on her phone.

He did not pick up on the first attempt; perhaps he was asleep. Not wanting to interrupt him again, Sam started browsing Instagram on her phone. Her feed was the usual: friends posting their latest brunch, travel photos and pet pictures. Boring, boring, boring.

An unexplained curiosity landed her on Blake’s profile. The ‘Follow’ button beckoned to her. Why not? She went ahead and added him. Not long after, Sam received the notification that Blake has returned the follow.

It turned out he was online. Sam hovered over the Direct Message and hesitated. Would it be strange to text him at this time of night? What would she even say to him?

_ Hey there,  _ she found herself messaging him.

_ Hey Sam. Is the uni email down?  _ His reply was almost instant. If only he could respond to actually important emails and submit his work with such efficiency

Sam rolled her eyes. Was he trying to be funny?  _ Still works the last time I checked. What are you up to? _

_ Finishing my part of the proposal,  _ he said.

_ Would be great if you were as quick at finishing your work as you are at texting,  _ she said, adding a smiling emoji to show that she wasn’t that annoyed -- yet.

_ I’ll get it out tomorrow morning before our review meeting,  _ he said,  _ goodnight. _

_ Ok. Goodnight. _

She put her phone away and turned off her lamp.

It was a strange time, to be going to bed with Blake Hunter’s goodnight message instead of Tom when she barely even knew him.

* * *

"Who's that?" Jordan McKenzie, the flatmate, said over an episode of Game of Thrones, leaning back against the aged sofa in the shared apartment.

Blake scrolled down Sam Rostrevor's Instagram page on his phone. "Some girl in my project. She's up my arse to send in my work.” Despite his white lie about what he had been up to when she messaged him, he planned on delivering on his promise and send through his work before their next meeting. It wouldn’t take much longer; it was almost done, anyway. He clicked on one of her recent photos, featuring her and some guy, probably her boyfriend.

“She’s cute,” Jordan said. He had moved closer to take a peek at Blake’s phone without him noticing.

Blake leaned away. Sam was pretty, indeed. Long brown hair, hazel eyes and plump lips, and the way she pursed her mouth when she was focused on a task -- “She’s taken,” he said, and Jordan gave him a look that implied that had never stopped Jordan before. “And she’s a bit too intense anyway.”

“Intense how?”

Blake told Jordan about their little spat regarding the research topic. She had seemed so frustrated at the time, though he didn’t see what the big deal was. Her preferred topic was unrealistic for their resources, he had tried to explain, but it seemed she was set on it. Jessica had offered a solution that they both agreed to -- good enough for Blake, though Sam had appeared more reluctant. He just wanted this to be done.

“It’s your biggest project, right?” Makes sense that she cares about it.”

Blake shrugged. It was a little unfortunate for Sam to be stuck with Blake in this project, even he admitted to himself; after four years of trudging through this degree, he wasn’t sure if he even wanted it anymore. He would see the program to its end, of course, but the thought of being an engineer for life left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“I just got the best idea,’ Jordan said, chugging the last of his beer. “Since you are obviously so bored by uni, I have a challenge for you: get her to date you by the end of the year.”

Blake rolled his eyes. Did Jordan think they were in a romantic comedy? He turned off the TV, calling it a night. “Fuck off.”

“You didn’t say no,” Jordan called from the sofa. “I’ll hold you to that, buddy.”

Blake shut the door behind him.

* * *

True to his promise, Blake had sent in his work by their meeting the next day. Sam went to the booked room ahead of time, planning to finish off her Thermodynamics assignment before having to buckle down for their proposal review.

It was a struggle to balance her latte, textbook and her open laptop in two hands; as she pushed opened the door to the meeting room with her shoulder, the coffee cup seemed to have a mind of its own when it tumbled to the floor from her hand, the contents spilling  _ everywhere _ .

“For Fuck’s sake!” She placed her laptop and textbook on the table and tossed her bag on a chair. She grabbed some scrap paper and started wiping up spilled coffee. It wasn’t very effective, but it was the best thing she had at hand. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“Oof.”

Sam looked behind her. Blake stood at the door with a look of pity. Sam ignored him and returned to cleaning up. He walked around her and took a seat next to her belongings. “You need help?”

“I’m  _ fine,  _ thanks,” Sam said. The words came out harsher than she intended; perhaps the embarrassment of being caught in this situation threw her out of kilter. “It’s not that bad.”

Blake pulled out his laptop and a notebook. “Shame about the coffee.”

That she agreed with. “Not my day.” She dumped the liquid-soaked paper into the bin outside the room. “You’re here early.”

He didn’t look up from his laptop. “Gonna work on my thermo assignment before our meeting.”

Sam perked up at that. “You do thermo?” She was relieved to find that she has a friend in that course, although she wouldn’t quite call Blake her friend at this time. Regardless, it was starting to get a bit lonely. “Me too.”

It was then she saw that Blake was only getting started with the assignment that was given a week ago. “You know that’s due in like four hours, right?” Not to mention their review meeting was going to take up half of that time.

He flipped through his lecture notes to the relevant topic. “Yes, and?”

Sam wasn’t about to admit to him that she had spent much, much longer to complete this assignment. “Good luck, I guess.” She returned to her own work.

“Thanks, might need it.”

She glanced at him, trying to discern if Blake was mocking her. He was completely straight-faced. She let it go.

They worked in silence for half an hour until it was time for the group meeting. Like clockwork, Jess entered the room. She wrinkled her nose. “Wow,” she said as she noticed the large coffee stain on the navy carpet. 

“You have Sam to thank for that,” Blake said, amusement clear as day in his voice.

Sam shrugged. “Lesson learned.”

They got started on the proposal review. It was going relatively smoothly, with minor tweaks in sentences and structure to improve the flow, until -- 

“Can’t have this in here,” Blake said, referring to a paragraph that Sam had written. 

Sam frowned. “Yeah?”

He pulled out the brief provided by Dr Simmons. “The literature review shall not contain specific text in detail, but an encompassing view of the latest and most prominent contributions in your chosen topic.”

She bristled. “I don’t think it’s wrong.”

Jess chimed in hesitantly: “It’s probably fine to include it.”

Blake looked at Sam, impassive. “Did you read the brief? It’s not wrong. It’s irrelevant.”

Sam tried to hide her annoyance and embarrassment; he had a point -- but the way he went about addressing it was, well, humiliating. “Whatever, I’ll fix it after our meeting.” She made a note on her document as a reminder. “You could at least not be an arse about it.”

Blake scowled. “What?”

Sam flushed. “I said, maybe you could be nicer when you tell someone their work is shit.”

“Okay!” Jess interrupted. “Let’s just get to the next section, guys. It’s almost done.”

Time felt as though it slowed to a crawl for the rest of the meeting. Tension hung in the air like a taut string until the very end.

“Finally,” Jess announced. Her relief was palpable. “Great job, everyone.”

Blake packed up his belongings in a blink and left the room without a word. Sam looked at Jess, her cheeks starting to colour once again. “Was that my fault?”

Jess let out a breath. “I mean, he was kind of a dick about it,” she said. “I wouldn’t sweat it too much, but  _ please  _ make up before our next meeting? It would really suck if we have to spend the rest of the year like this.”

* * *

Neither Sam nor Blake had apologised to the other by the following day. She had decided she wasn’t going to; it wasn’t her fault that he wasn’t capable of providing criticism without making her feel like the stupidest person on Earth.

She sat in an empty row in the Thermodynamics lecture hall. Students bustled around her as she scrolled on her phone, waiting for class to start.

A coffee was placed on her desk. She looked up.

“Hey,” Blake said and settled in next to her. “Don’t spill this one.”

She glanced at the cup. Apology accepted? “Thanks.” She took a sip. “How’d you know I like latte?”

“I saw it all over the floor yesterday.”

“Oh.” She felt her cheeks getting hot again. She was doing that an awful lot lately. She changed the subject. “Is this your first time going to class?”

“Maybe my third?” 

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. He was being serious. “Right.” The professor walked in and set herself up at the podium. “I hope you at least handed up the thermo assignment in time.”

“No, I lost it after our meeting.” He grinned at what must’ve been a look of utter shock on Sam’s face. “I’m kidding. I did.”

She couldn’t help but break into a smile. The professor started on a new topic about Availability and Exergy. “So you’re gonna come to class everyday now?

“Nope.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Any feedback would be lovely :)


	3. Looking Ahead

Each time Sam received a rejection email from a company, it stung just as much as the first.

She crossed off Hansen Consulting on her spreadsheet. Another one down. All she wanted -- no,  _ needed,  _ was one acceptance email and she hadn’t managed to land it. She tried to ignore the fact that her sister, Kate, had already secured  _ multiple  _ job offers back when she was in this position.

She tried to ring Tom but she was taken straight to his voicemail. It was rather early in the night; he should still be up. Nonetheless, she put her phone away and began writing an outline for their upcoming lab work. One hour had passed before her phone buzzed with Tom’s name on it.

“Hey, you,” Sam said, smiling to herself.

“Hey, how’s my future engineer doing?”

“I’m okay. Just got rejected by Hansen Consulting, which kinda sucks. But there’s still time so I’m trying not to freak out,” she said, spinning slowly on her swivel chair. “What’s new with you?”

“Sorry to hear that, Sam. I’m sure you’ll find something soon,” he said, and she almost rolled her eyes at the generic response, but remained quiet. Tom updated her on his life; his new job as a biological technician had a rocky start but was now going well, he had made a few new friends in the field.

Sam waited for him to ask about her, but he didn’t. She volunteered the information, regardless. She talked about her new group, Jess and Blake. She also mentioned Haley and how she had transferred to nursing. It wasn’t long before Sam noticed his short, distracted responses.

“Tom?”

There was a slight pause before he replied: “Yes, yes, you were talking about your group?”

“I was telling you about Haley quitting engineering -- she is in nursing now. Isn’t that kinda crazy? Good on her, though. I think she’s enjoying it.”

“Yeah, that’s cool,” he said.

Sam bit her lip. “Is everything alright, Tom?” Her heart sped up in her chest as she anticipated his answer. She wondered if she and Tom’s relationship was going to be another statistic of the many failed long-distance relationships, after all.

“What? Nothing’s wrong,” Tom said. “But I have to go now, Sam -- sorry. There’s a drinks thing tonight that I said yes to.”

At this hour, on a weeknight? “Whatever,” she snapped. “Goodnight.” She didn’t wait for his reply before she hung up. Feeling stupid, she wondered if Tom would call her back to explain, or even send a message -- but there was nothing.

A sob escaped her chest, followed by another. Hot tears blurred her vision and rolled down her cheeks and she started gasping for breath. She wiped away her tears with an aggressive swipe of her arm, but there was no stopping them -- so she simply embraced this catharsis and let her heart mourned for her loss.

* * *

The first sip of her iced tea felt like liquid heaven in the midst of Melbourne’s blistering summer. “Amazing,” was all Sam could muster as she took another long sip.

Chatter and laughter filled the warm Saturday air at St Kilda beach. The little cafe that Haley picked out was in reasonable proximity to the action, but far enough from the noise that it made a perfect brunch spot.

Haley and Sam traded the latest life updates, as was tradition. Haley’s first few weeks in nursing school had went well, although she mentioned the lack of boys compared to engineering was a culture shock. 

“If it means I never have to put up with Fourier’s law again, so be it,” Haley said. “Speaking of boys, how’s it going with Tom?” 

Sam looked away. “I’m not sure what’s happening with him, to be honest.”

The expression on Haley’s face demanded further explanation. Sam mentioned the drop in communication with Tom since the start of summer break. She had hoped it was due to both of them being busy with internships, but the situation had not improved even a few weeks into the new semester. 

“That really sucks, Sammy,” Haley said. She always used that nickname when Sam was feeling down. “Have you talked to him about it?”

“I tried...but he said it’s nothing. Honestly, I don’t know if I want to fix it,” Sam said, and now that the words had been spoken out loud, it all felt frighteningly real.

Haley’s eyes widened and she lowered her voice. “What do you mean?”

“We’ve been long-distance longer than we’d ever been together in the same city. And we still have no idea when we could actually  _ be  _ together,” Sam said. “I don’t think I want to keep doing it. And...he probably feels the same.” She thought about how the phone call with Tom ended the other night. It really did seem over, then, with what Tom did -- or didn’t do.

Haley remained quiet for a moment. “Do you think he could just be really busy?”

Sam took another sip of her tea. The drink was becoming more diluted from the melted ice. “Busy, distracted, not interested -- it doesn’t matter,” she said. “I don’t know what to do, Lee.”

Haley sighed. “In that case, it’s probably best to break up with him now.”

Sam agreed, although she still didn’t know  _ what  _ exactly to do. How did people in long-distance relationships break up? It seemed anti-climactic to end it over the phone, just like that. 

It seemed there was a burning question that Haley wanted to ask, but wasn’t. Sam prompted her.

“Well…” Haley started. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but is there someone else?”

Sam raised her eyebrows. “No,  _ Tom’s  _ the one that wants to break up, even though he hasn’t said it.” Nonetheless, her thoughts flitted to Blake for just a second, but it didn’t change her answer. “There’s no one.”

* * *

The drive from Melbourne to Bendigo felt far longer than the two hours Google Maps approximated that it would take.

Blake turned up the air-conditioner in his fifteen year-old Toyota as an attempt to stave off the heat. In times like these he almost wished he accepted his parent’s offer of a new car, but the strings that would have been attached to the gift -- well, not even a new vehicle was worth that sort of baggage.

He turned into the driveway of the Hunter’s family home. The sheer excess and opulence of the property bore down on Blake, asserting itself like an unwelcome authority. The signs of old money, passed down for generations from the Victorian Gold Rush, were evident in every nook and cranny. 

Blake walked to the front porch, about to unlock the door when Cecilia Hunter opened it.

“Blake, honey!” His mother pulled him into a quick hug. He caught a whiff of her lavender perfume that took him back to his childhood. He ignored that thought. “I heard you pull into the driveway,” she said, squinting into the distance at his car. “You’re still driving that heap of junk, I see.”

There it was. “Hello to you, too, mum,” he said and walked past her into the house. “Penny!”

The sight of his beagle approaching him was worth tolerating Cecilia a thousand times over. The twelve year-old puppy walked down the hallway, when she would once run and pounce onto him in her youth. Penny’s lack of energy, even for a canine her age, concerned him. She seemed drastically more lethargic than the last time he saw her a month ago.

He took Penny into his arms and prepared himself for her usual wet kisses, but today she simply nuzzled against his chest. “Hey there, Pen, missed you.” He rubbed her belly the way he remembered she loved it and let her lick his hand. He put her down gently and she stayed close to him as he wandered into the living area. 

“She looks tired,” he said as he sat on the sofa, stroking her back gently. The padding on her was gone, too -- the feeling of her spine and ribs under his fingers made his heart ache. “And really skinny. What’s going on, mum?”

Cecilia sat on the other end of the couch, folding her hands in her lap. Blake knew she did that whenever she was anxious.

“I wanted to wait for your father before we tell you, honey…” she started, “but…Penny is sick. She has lymphoma.”

Blake sucked in a deep breath. He had anticipated bad news when Cecilia asked him to visit out of the blue, but this -- this was the worst he’d imagined. He stopped petting Penny and got up to pace around the room. He couldn’t look at her right now. “How bad?”

“Stage three. The doctor recommended chemotherapy for her and she’s had her first treatment,” his mother said. She explained that Penny was expected to require four months of chemo sessions to achieve remission.

“We’re giving Penny the best treatments with a reputable doctor, Blake. The outlook is promising,” Cecilia said. “We’ll give you weekly updates while you’re away, so you can focus on university.”

“I don’t  _ care _ about uni, mum. Pen is  _ sick _ ,” he said. “In fact, I’ve been thinking of dropping out, and now with Pen’s condition, I’m staying here.”

His mother looked as though he had just slapped her on the face. “Honey, your father and I --”

“I said I’m staying.” He got up, grabbed his bag and went to his room. 

She went after him. “Blake!” Her voice was muffled behind his locked door. “You don’t get to talk to your mother like that.” Her voice was suddenly calm when she spoke again: “If you stop going to classes, we will stop paying for Penny’s treatments. I will  _ not  _ let you damage our name by dropping out over a  _ dog _ .”

As usual, his mother did not disappoint. He opened the door to Cecilia standing there, her eyes coloured with cold fury. He shoved her aside and stormed towards the exit.

“At least we told you about her,” she shouted behind him. “We could’ve stayed silent. We could’ve chosen not to get her treatments. We are doing it all for you!”

He got into his car and pulled out of the driveway, flooring the throttle.


End file.
